Comparing The New Aggregators: Flipboard, Pulse, Zite, Float And More | September 2011

From Flipboard and Aol Editions, to Ongo and News.me, the rise of tablets and apps is changing how we gather and consume content. A couple of apps have grabbed the headlines in recent months. Flipboard has closed over $60 million in funding and has a $200 million valuation. More recently, Zite was snapped up by CNN. Even Google is jumping on this bandwagon, based on reports of Google Propeller designed so Android and iOS users can curate content.

For consumers, there are now so many of these next-generation RSS readers that it can be daunting to keep them straight. But they have distinct differences. Some curate content with an algorithm, while others use a team of editors. Some have made partnerships with publishers, while some are charging ahead without them. And there are other differences too, in areas like customization, sharing and price. To see how some of the new aggregators stack up, check out our chart below.

Services/Apps

Price

How Content Is Aggregated

Official Content Partners

Social Networks Used As Content Sources

Customization Options

Sharing Options

Platforms

How It’s Different

Funding

Free

Content comes from the user’s social network and Flipboard’s content partners. Flipboard curates featured content in its Content Guide. Users can search for a specific feed, group, list, hashtag or account.

Content is pulled from tens of thousands of publications. Each section identifies the top 20 most influential and well-known sources. It is prioritized based on your interests.

None.

None.

Users can add their own content sources; can customize the colors of their Edition; can select and re-order from 18 different sections.

E-mail; Facebook, Twitter; can save for offline reading.

iPad

Because Editions links directly to the source, it doesn’t need content partners. Also, because Aol is a publisher, it can fully show content from its entities within the app.

None.

$5.99 / month to access content from official content partners. Beyond those partners, it is 99 cents per title.

Full content from partners with large images and columns in an ad-free layout. Articles are also curated by Ongo’s editorial team and complemented by the company’s algorithm to highlight important stories.

You can add any RSS feed you want. Ongo shows full articles within the app, rather than linking to the sources. Like Float, the app syncs across its platforms. And, like Trove, a team of editors curates top news/stories.

Raised $12 million total.

Free

Full content from partners are shown. Social feeds are filtered for reading activity so users can see what their friends are reading across the web, and sources are curated by interest. Users can add web content via Float bookmarklet.